Envirolab is pleased to announce that we will be part of a research grant from the Australian Government to fund the development of new technological solutions in the detection of emerging contaminants, namely the field deployable detection of Perfluoroalkylated Substances (PFAS).

Envirolab, along with our innovation partners, KD Analytical Australia (KDAA) and the University of Tasmania (UTAS) have been awarded over $2.8 million through the Australian Government’s Cooperative Research Centre Projects (CRC-P) initiative. The CRC Programme supports industry led collaborations between industry, researchers and the community.

The program is part of a business research collaboration under the Australian Government, who will be investing $34.5 million into 17 projects in this round of funding, which facilitates cooperation between industry and research institutions in the development of new technological solutions.

Research has identified PFAS as persistent organic pollutants. International conventions have furthermore defined certain PFAS compounds, such as Perfluorooctane sulphonate (PFOS), Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and Perfluorohexane sulphonate (PFHxS), as persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic to mammals.

Simon Mills, Group R&D Manager at Envirolab has been instrumental as a driving force in the grant application process.

“PFAS continue to be a source of environmental and community concern within Australia and globally. Our collaboration aims to produce a field deployable PFAS analyser to enable the “triage” of affected sites and potentially work in conjunction with remedial solutions to monitor efficacy in near real time,” said Simon.

In announcing the news this week, David Springer, General Manager at Envirolab, added: “We are proud to be working alongside our Australian partners, KDAA and UTAS in such a significant project that will apply high quality research and lead us into complimentary areas of PFAS testing. The benefits to the scientific industry are certainly significant.”